Tag: Raiders

Preston Venue 12 – Polytechnic Part 2

Attached to the venue was a bar/nightclub called 42nd Street which we smuggled into a few times despite being non-students.

On 31/05/92 I went to see the Cornish band the Family Cat. It was a hot summer which at that point of my life was nosebleed season for me. It was a late decision to go with a couple of friends. We met in the Continental and then got distracted walking into town by Jools Holland playing a set on Avenham Park.

In the pub before the gig, some punters were watching a Nigel Benn title fight on a little TV in a corner. We went in about 11pm and caught an unnamed support act who had one song titled ‘Kenneth Clarke is a Sad Man’.

The place was about half full and I saw a pal of mine called Warren Beasley in the audience. A couple of years after Warren tragically died from cancer at the age of 26.    

Family Cat came on about 12.15. It never ceases to astound me looking back how late the sets were in those days, it would never or very rarely happen now. It was a nondescript gig and they played for about an hour.

In 1997 John Dewhurst, Uncle George, Gill and I went to see Billy Bragg.  It was 6 days before the General Election, and it was patently obvious that after 18 years of Tory rule we were finally going to see a Labour government. As a result, he was on fire that night literally preaching to the converted   and that enthusiasm created an anticipatory buzz in the crowd.  

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Billy Bragg. Image Credit The Salt Lake Tribune

The charged atmosphere added to the lustre of ‘Ideaology’ and ‘New England’. A thoroughly enjoyable set.

The following week the expected landslide came to pass. I recall on the Friday morning Dominik Diamond opened his show on 5 Live by stating ‘he was proud of the British public’ earning him a reprimand for breaching the legendary BBC impartiality rules.

That evening George and I headed into town where I could partake in my first legal drink under Labour power at the sprightly age of 29 and we took full advantage ending the night in the legendary Raiders nightclub!

It was an enervating time and on a personal level it coincided with major life events of buying our first house and getting married before the 90’s were out. The time period was the Yin to the current Yang of the post Brexit Covid Britain we currently reside in.

My final gig there was to see Electric Six on 29/11/03.  It was on a Friday night and the place was almost full. They were a six-piece band from Michigan and had just released their fine debut album ‘Fire’. They had shot to fame on the back of their two hit singles ‘Danger! High Voltage’ and especially ‘Gay Bar’ accompanied by a startlingly original video which resulted in me never looking at Abraham Lincoln in the same way!

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Electric Six. Image Credit brightonandhovenews.org

I think they remain the band that I was most surprised by in relation to how unexpectedly good they were, they were as tight as a drum live. Dick Valentine was an utterly engaging lead singer complete with a French stick as a prop.

Little did I know when I started attending gigs that in my mid 30’s I would be joyously bopping round a moshpit with a hundred others bellowing ‘I have got something to put in you’!  

Preston Venues 5 to 7 – Caribbean Club Part 2

When living near the Withytrees in Fulwood I quite often used to walk into work which took me across Moor Park and right past the location of the Caribbean Club, now a Cash and Carry store.

My first visit around 1985 was to see Bogshed on a cold Wednesday night. They were pretty forgettable and had one good track – ‘Fat Boy Exam Failure’. I recall I managed to get a lift home from one of my brother’s mates.

My second visit in July 1986 on another Wednesday night was eminently more memorable. Prior to the first band I won £10 on the £100 bandit which was my biggest ever win and a tidy chunk of money in those days, resulting in me drawing annoyed glances from the club members.

The support band was Howl in the Typewriter which wholly consisted of one bloke called Sam from Blackpool playing a guitar loudly which sounds rather limited in scope, but he was good fun. He went on to form a long running record label called Pumf Records and Tapes. His encore party piece was unveiling his array of 15 guitars and allocating members of the audience to each one which created an unusual cacophonous outro.

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Howl in the Typewriter. Image Credit last.fm

The interesting backdrop to the music was that England were playing Poland in a must win World Cup game in Mexico with an 11pm kick off. So, there was a runner coming in from the other side of the club whilst the main band were on stage to announce each goal of Lineker’s hat trick which generated loud cheers every time.

The main act was a Washington DC Hardcore/Blues band called Scream who were really enjoyable. They had to go off at midnight as residents were complaining about the racket and their last act was to ask the audience for the bed for the night. A postscript was that 3 months after I saw them a 17 year- old drummer called Dave Grohl joined the band. The night ended by tottering home and watching the last 10 minutes of the England game.

Continuing the theme of Caribbean based venues, there is another club Jalgos – Venue 6 behind Raiders nightclub. I visited there once around 1995. It was again a social club set up on the ground floor with the venue upstairs. They were many old and new punks in attendance that night.

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Jalgos Club. Image Credit facebook.com/Jalgos

Support was Jez Catlow’s band punk band Pike who I was watching for the first time. They had been ploughing the local circuit for many years prior to this gig and continued to afterwards, however they are scheduled to play their last ever gig later this year.

The main band were UK Subs who continue to this very day to play a legendary number of gigs per year. I can only think comparably of Status Quo who were as hard touring as the Subs. They are fronted by the timeless Charlie Harper, who is now aged 74.

I read recently that the continued existence of Jalgos is in doubt, which would potentially leave Preston without a Caribbean venue, which I think would be a shame as there is a thriving Caribbean festival that takes place each summer on nearby Avenham Park.

Venue 7 – Lion Pub was down the bottom end on Church St located between the George and Joplins hostelries. It had gigs virtually every night, however it was primarily a Jazz and Blues venue and as a result it was not a regular haunt. I did see one gig there around 1988, involving Human Nature referenced previously in the Blackburn King Georges article. I also recall John Inverdale hosting some interviews in the very pub for a Radio 5 live piece when they were undertaking a tour of Britain looking at regional variations.